User blog:Jemjar/Stealth (Payday 2)
Payday 2 includes a much more sophisticated stealth system than its predecessor, with many more stealthable heists, equipment affecting your stealth and several skills which influence stealth gameplay. Around half of the heists in Payday 2 can be completed entirely in stealth, some without killing a single cop or guard. Stealth in Payday 2 is divided into a number of phases or modes, through which players can only descend (there is one exception, see "The Alesso Heist" below) : *Civilian mode *Casing mode *Stealth mode *Loud mode Loud mode exists on all heists and if a heist has any of the preceding modes it must have all the subsequent ones. Note that until a heist reaches loud mode, AI team-mates will not be active and cannot be detected. Civilian mode Mechanics In civilian mode, players cannot be detected at all, however they cannot interact with anything except the bag of gear. Due to not carrying any gear at all, players cannot choose to mask up either. Transition Once a heister picks up their gear, they automatically transition to casing mode. Strategy Civilian mode serves a similar purpose to casing mode, allowing heisters to perform reconnaissance of the map and attempt to locate key objectives before collecting their equipment. However, as heisters can only transition to casing mode at a specified position (the gear bag), they therefore cannot use civilian mode to strategically position themselves for the next phase. Heists Civilian mode is available in the following heist(s) *Golden Grin Casino Casing mode Mechanics Certain heists will initially begin in casing mode, with players unmasked. Casing mode can be identified by the lack of a weapon on the player's screen, a mask-on notification and a "casing mode bar" on the top right in place of the hostage counter. In casing mode, players can: *Move around the heist map with immunity to detection by civilians and reduced detection by guards and cameras *Spot guards, civilians and cameras **Actively mark guards and cameras (requires the Basic Chameleon skill) **Passively mark guards and civilians (requires the Basic Sixth Sense skill) *Pick up "instant" items (keycards, money bundles, etc., requires Ace Sixth Sense skill) *Put on their masks However during casing mode one cannot: *Attack with a melee or ranged weapon *Duck, jump, sprint, or shout (a message will be displayed, indicating that suspicious activities are not allowed) *Interact with objects that requires an interaction phase/wheel, such as packages, loot bags, player revival, etc. *Place drills or pick locks *Deploy equipment, such as ammo bags or first aid kits (the "deploy" key being the same key to mask on) *Receive damage through any means (e.g. falling a far distance, struck by friendly explosions, touching fire) Transition Casing mode can be ended either voluntarily, by "masking up" (holding the secondary interaction key), or involuntarily, by getting detected or setting off an alarm. Once a player masks up for either reason, assuming an alarm has not sounded, the player enters stealth (see below) and can be detected normally. Casing mode ends involuntarily for all players when the alarm sounds, as detailed in "Stealth mode". It is not possible to trigger the alarm while all players are in casing mode. Strategy Typically, one's primary objective in casing mode is to perform heist reconnaissance to gather data on current map variations, guards/cameras positions and general locations of objectives. Additionally, casing mode allows heisters to choose where to mask up, potentially relocating to otherwise hard to access locations on a map. The rule of thumb when it comes to "case-scouting" is to maintain a minimal detection risk, so choose your gear wisely. If needed, investing in the Ghost and Fugitive skill trees can help with maintaining a high-concealment but loud-capable build. Maintain your distance, as cameras and guards can still detect a low detection risk player if they linger around close/long enough. Avoiding guards is also crucial in preventing alarms, as accidental contact with a guard will result in instant detection. Due to different maps having different variations, perfecting the use of casing mode requires a lot of practice. Certain skills can help make life easier by enabling one to perform additional actions while in casing mode. Casing players can also be very useful working in tandem with masked-up stealthing players, by spotting guards and cameras with a much lower risk of being detected while doing so. Heists Casing mode is available in the following heists: * Jewelry Store/Ukrainian Job * Four Stores * Bank Heist (All variations) * Firestarter (Day 3 only) * Diamond Store * Mallcrasher * Nightclub * Big Bank * GO Bank * Election Day (Day 2 Plan C only) * Car Shop * Hotline Miami (Day 2 only) * The Alesso Heist * Golden Grin Casino (After exiting civilian mode) The Alesso Heist The Alesso Heist is notable in allowing players to return to casing mode after having entered stealth mode. This is done as a specific triggered event which can only be achieved if the alarm has not gone off and results in the map essentially being regenerated, with previously open doors becoming closed and vice-versa. Guards and civilians move to new positions and have new paths to follow. As the escape can be reached during this second stage of the heist, The Alesso Heist is the only heist which can be completed with the entire crew in casing mode. Stealth Mechanics In stealth mode players can be detected, but in turn can perform all the usual actions that they can in loud gameplay with the exception of certain inactive objective related actions. Most notably this means that players can open doors, carry bags and use their weapons. Because most actions are possible in stealth, most heists which include a stealth phase can be completed in stealth. The only specific exception to this is Car Shop however while Mallcrasher can be completed without the alarm being raised, it will give zero experience points for doing so. Transition Stealth mode transitions into loud mode upon the alarm being raised, following any of a number of actions: *Detection by a camera which reaches alert status *Detection by a guard or civilian who calls the police *Map-related static triggers (tripping a laser grid, breaking an alarmed case, etc.) *Map-related objective triggers (blowing C4, helicopter arriving, etc.) Loud mode will result all guards being alerted to the heisters and all civilians attempting to flee if they are not already intimidated or cable-tied. This is followed by normal loud gameplay, with cops spawning in increasing numbers and increasing strength. The only exception to this is on Shadow Raid, where no police will respond although extra Murkywater guards may spawn. Strategy Guards The guard generally patrols a semi-random route, and often pauses at busy or important areas. When a security camera is destroyed, the nearest guard may respond and investigate it. If not killed quickly after spotting the broken camera, the guard will raise the alarm. If a guard spots a player, he will yell at him to stop, pause for about 5 seconds, move slowly to the player, and attempt to cuff him. If he is successful, the player will be immobilised and he will then raise the alarm. This behaviour can be exploited by crafty players as they can potentially lead a lone guard into a more concealed location before taking him down, provided they do not shoot or move once the guard tells the player to stop. When a guard decides to raise an alarm, the guard will stop, draw his weapon, and call an operator using his earpiece. If the guard is killed at any point before the call is finished, then no alarm will be raised. It is best to terminate a guard before he draws his weapon however, as he may fire his weapon and alert the entire area. If a guard is killed during the stealth portion of a heist, then a player will have 12.5 seconds to begin to answer his pager once it activates. Answering the pager takes another 10 seconds. The team as a whole may answer up to four pagers during a heist; the operator will not believe a player answering a fifth pager and will raise the alarm anyway. Dominating a guard during the stealth portion of a heist (by pressing the shout key) also requires a pager response. The operator will raise the alarm if: *Players answer more than four pagers, the operator will sound slightly annoyed and/or voice his suspicion as a cue. Note that some heists may have an extra guard sent to investigate if three pagers are answered (or similar events). However, this does not prevent a fourth pager being answered. *A pager interaction is interrupted, though if at least one more player is also answering the pager when this happens, the alarm will not be raised, provided the other player finishes answering the pager and does not disconnect as well. Players can tactfully exploit this to effectively use up their pager counts. *The operator does not receive a response within the allotted amount of time. The pager does not need to be answered fully within the allotted time, only started. Pagers may also be 'juggled' back and forth to buy time in a tight situation with careful exchange of control by players - as long as one player is holding the pager line open, the operator will not sound the alarm. A guard will raise an alarm shortly after detecting any of the following: *Unsuppressed gunfire (~45m alert range for player-fired weapons, ~25m for other guards) *An explosion (grenades, RPGs, shaped charges, etc.) *A masked or unmasked player *Dead bodies *Any type of bag, though bags that are spawned on set (e.g. Thermal Drills on Bank Heists) or through an event (cage parts) will only cause guards to become suspicious if they have been picked up and dropped by a player. *Dominated guards *Cable tied, panicking, or pacified civilians *Broken cameras (on rare occasions however, the guard will simply stare up at the camera, wave at it and then leave it alone. If this happens, other guards will also ignore the broken camera) *Drills (thermal drills waiting to be set up won't cause suspicion, though the bag may cause a brief spike in their alert level until it snaps into place) *The noise of a running saw *A deployed sentry gun *Broken windows/skylights (They will either be instantly alerted if they hear it, or alerted if they see the broken window. They will be suspicious regardless of if it's completely broken or just cracked) *Being affected by ECM Feedback *A device that is currently in the process of being hacked (e.g. the voting machines in Election Day Day 2 and the office computers on Big Bank). Certain devices will still cause a guard to raise an alarm after it has been successfully hacked (e.g. the server computer on Big Bank). *An open alarm box on Day 2 of Firestarter *Certain open doors (e.g., the lab door of Big Oil Day 2) *A cry of pain from a nearby guard who was killed by a player who does not have Shinobi Aced OR Hidden Blade Aced If the player intends to intimidate a guard, they must have the Dominator skill and also must be in close to mid-range. Domination no longer works the same way in stealth as it does in an assault. Instead, pressing the shout key once will cause the guard to get down onto his knees and cuff himself. The player must then answer his pager. Players may either use them as a hostage in case a fellow member is in custody or convert them to their side if they have the Joker skill. Joker cannot be used during stealth (as of Update #24). After a guard spots a player, the player must try to dominate him before he draws his gun, in order to maximize chances of him backing down. While dominating a guard still requires answering a pager as of Update #24, this can be used to pacify a guard without risking him firing his weapon. He can then be dispatched and put in a body bag once his pager has been answered, with no further cost. If a player attempts to intimidate a guard and the guard does not back down, the guard can approach the player and handcuff him. The player must then take a full minute to remove their handcuffs unless assisted by a crew member. They can also handcuff a player within 1 or 2 seconds if a guard happens to be alerted within 1 meter of the player. The guard who has successfully cuffed a player will raise an alarm shortly afterwards. To counter a failed intimidation, the player can try to melee the guard and knock him down, then attempt to intimidate him again. However, during this process, the guard may fire his weapon, which will alert any guards or civilians who are in range of the sound. *As in most stealth games, guard behaviour in the game is unrealistic, but implemented for the sake of gameplay: **Guards have very poor peripheral senses, and can only really see what's directly in front of them. However due to the way Payday 2 handles vision, they have infinite vertical vision range. **Guards won't notice when normally locked doors have been opened, with the exception of vault doors on certain heists. ***Guards will, however, notice a broken window and immediately call the police, who will respond in force. **They cuff players from the front, which allows the captured heister to eventually pick his/her way out of the restraints. This is strongly trained against in reality for the very same reason. **Pager operators appear unsurprised by guards dramatically changing voice. **Guards never call in to the pager operator until they die or are forced to surrender. **In reality, security guards carrying pagers is unusual, as no security firm would issue their guards with pagers, a more logical and correct device would be a two-way transceiver or even the guards' phones themselves. ***Conversely, the in-game Metropolitan Police officers, who in real life do carry pagers as well as two-way radios, are not required to be interacted with when killed during stealth. ***It is never explained why the pager operator stops believing the crew's attempts to answer a fifth call. ***It is also never explained why an alarm is raised when the player drop out of a pager call, yet nothing out of the ordinary happens when a guard is killed mid-call when calling for backup. ****Players will, however, have to answer the pager as usual. Cameras Security cameras act as a "stationary security guard" in that they will detect any players during stealth within their line of sight. The rate of detection is similar to that of civilians and guards and is determined by detection risk. Cameras will also spot any of the following: *Loot and body bags *Corpses *Alerted civilians and guards *Hostages, including dominated guards *Cracked or broken glass (including display cases; for example, those found on Day 3 of Framing Frame) *Broken cameras *Drills, though Thermal Drills waiting to be set up won't cause detection. *Open vaults *Deployed sentry guns If a camera spots any of the above, as indicated by a question mark above the camera and globally heard, high-pitched beeps that increase in frequency over time, players will have a variable amount of time to remove the suspicious object or disable the camera before the camera becomes alerted, indicated by an exclamation point and a continuous audio tone. The exact time it takes a camera to detect suspicious activity varies based on the distance and angle of the suspicious object from the cameraFrankelstner's The Long Guide, but it is usually in the neighborhood of 2 seconds. Note that movement speed does not alter the detection rate of cameras, so when you must cross in front of a camera while masked and no guards are around, sprinting is the best option. As soon as a camera is alerted, the alarm will be raised inevitably after 7 seconds; destroying the camera, killing the guard watching the cameras or placing an ECM jammer will not ''prevent this from happening. Cameras can also detect noise nearby. Most notably, if setting up a drill near an active camera facing away from the drill positon, the camera will detect the noise as soon as the drilling starts, even though it cannot see the drill. Again, it will take approximately two seconds for the camera to be alerted and then the alarm will sound 7 seconds later. On Death Wish difficulty, among other changes, security cameras will be replaced with Titan cameras (except on Diamond Store). These cameras are encased in an armored box, rendering them invincible (although still vulnerable to ECMs, Camera Loop and to the camera operator being killed) and also making it harder to determine which way they are facing. '''Titan cameras' were introduced in update #24. Cameras can be destroyed on any difficulty below Death Wish by simply shooting them once, preferably with a silenced weapon, or using a melee weapon on them. However, any Security Guard that spots a broken camera will become alerted and raise the alarm; thus, it is advisable to dispose of any guards that might still be roaming around the area in which the camera has been destroyed. Broken cameras are completely disabled and will not detect anything. On some heists, breaking a camera might cause the camera operator to send a guard to investigate. This will happen immediately after destroying the camera and can be anticipated by looking for guards that use their in-ear headsets, and listening for nearby radio chatter. This can be exploited by clever heisters to lure guards away from their usual patrol by destroying a camera in a remote place and waiting for the guard to come investigate. Security guards that are sent to investigate destroyed cameras will do one of two things: they will either become suspicious, draw their weapon and attempt to sound the alarm; or more rarely, walk up to the camera, try waving at it and then leave it alone, assuming it to be a technical fault. If the guard becomes suspicious, then even if that guard is dealt with, other guards in the future will also become suspicious when they see it. However, if they suspect nothing, then other guards will also ignore the broken camera, should they pass by it. Civilians are never suspicious of broken cameras, and so on some heists such as GO Bank, players can pick off cameras near civilians without arousing any suspicion, provided no guards or other cameras notice the destroyed camera. , along with its late operator]] Certain heists also include a security room, usually locked behind a very resistant security door but can sometimes be locked behind a metal door or even completely exposed. Once inside, players can disable all cameras on the map by killing or otherwise incapacitating the camera operator, who is usually a guard. (Due to a glitch, cameras will remain active on some maps (notably Shadow Raid) if the camera operator has been dominated but not killed.) After eliminating the camera operator, players will now have access to the camera feed from inside the security room, which can be used to spot guards or civilians/objects of interest. Though the cameras themselves do not move and have a fixed field of view, the player looking through a camera may pan with the mouse and zoom with the forward and backward movement keys ('W' and 'S'). When a player looks through a camera, guards and items of interest within the camera's view (whether or not they are visible in the player's view through the camera) will immediately be highlighted for several seconds for all players to see. A player using the camera feed cannot see his own HUD. Thus, if one only uses cameras to highlight guards and objects, it is more advisable to enter camera feed view mode, quickly "flip" through all the cameras and exit, then repeat whenever the highlight fades. This will allow him to keep an eye on his environment in case a guard or civilian show up. Players can still use the in-game chat when operating the camera feed. Note that however, any cameras that have been destroyed prior to that will still get spotted by guards and still cause them to sound alarms. Additionally, if a camera has been fully alerted prior to taking the operator down, killing him or destroying the camera afterwards will not stop the alarm from going off. Guards will not be sent to investigate any additional destroyed cameras once the camera operator has been taken care of. As such, it is advised to use any available camera lure before doing so in order to thin the guards' numbers as much as possible. Ghosts with Camera Loop can temporarily disable cameras for seconds ( if Aced) by walking up close and applying the loop. Only one camera per crew can be looped at a time. Looped cameras will not raise any suspicion if spotted by guards or civilians and can be identified by their cyan outline, which will begin to blink and play an audible beeping noise when the loop is ending. Additionally, placing an ECM jammer will disable all cameras for the duration of the jam. Because of this, having at least one Ghost in the crew can be highly beneficial when attempting a difficult stealth heist. Civilians A large number of civilians dot the maps, most usually in heists where stealth is the main approach where they pose hindrances to the crew by way of detection. Unlike guards and cameras, civilians cannot detect a player in casing mode, though will quickly panic at the earliest sight of one with a mask on and weapons out, and cannot be pacified if fully alerted. Panicking civilians will usually either seek out the nearest viable panic button, call the police, or simply run outside the map boundaries where an alarm will inevitably be raised. Players may shout at civilians to intimidate them and get them to lie on the ground, or produce any kind of noise if they have Control Freak which gives the same result. This temporarily gets them to stay down in one spot, keeping them out of the line of fire or delaying their attempts at contacting the police, though if not kept a close eye on they will eventually rise up again and resume their phone call(s) or race towards the nearest source of alarm. Civilians on the ground can be restrained with cable ties to render them immobile until moved by the players. The players are discouraged from killing civilians; killing a civilian will immediately deduct funds from the player's spending cash (regardless of whether the heist is completed). Cable ties are used to take civilians hostage. When civilians are ordered to lie down, a player can use cable ties to tie them up. This stops the hostages from running away, possibly alarming the police. The player originally starts out with 2 cable ties but it is possible to get more by getting the respective upgrade. This is done by Acing the Cable Guy skill: *Removed* When a civilian is tied, they will be unable to alert the police and unable to move, and must wait for a police officer to free them. A number in the top right of the screen will show the number of cable-tied hostages the crew has secured (except during police assault waves, during which the indicator will change to "Police Assault In Progress"). Maximizing the number of cable-tied hostages will prevent from triggering an alarm by cellphone calls or panic buttons while stealthing. Cable tied civilians can still be moved around by interacting with them, thus enabling the crew to reposition them in an area where law enforcers will have a hard time getting to in order to prevent them from being rescued, or simply to move them out of the line of fire/hot zones where accidental civilian casualties can occur. To order moving civilians to sit down, either move far enough away from them or interact with them again. *The importance of cable ties is dependent on the mission. *Although Cable Ties' quantity are quite limited, saving them up is also completely useless as they do not give any benefit when kept in inventory until the end. *Several heists, like Art Gallery and Cook Off, do not possess civilians, making cable ties useless. *Tying down civilians (usually Bank Managers) with Keycards will make them drop those, preventing the need to kill them. *The only heists where you are required to tie down civilians is The Diamond, provided you wish to remain stealthy. Although simply killing them is also an option. Heists Trivia * When using the cable ties in both PAYDAY: The Heist, the cable ties are not visible in 3rd person, yet the person tied appears to be bound by an invisible force. *Civilians may sometimes clip into level geometry or "float" on top of objects when bound by cable ties. These may obstruct vision and pose accidental hazards to the crew as they can still be shot as usual. *If the player leaves casing mode around guards or civilians, there will be a brief period of slow motion to allow them to react. This does not occur when masking up around cameras, though, so beware. * If a player were to look at the Titan Camera's inside closely, they could see above the camera part a text that says "I can see you" in newspaper-title text. Another piece of text on it says "Suck It." * The GenSec Titan Cameras are apparently "Bulletproof", "grenade-proof", "saw-proof" and "shock proof" as seen on their undersides. * The camera feed always displays the player's current system time, which can sometimes cause problems such as "8:00" being displayed in a night-time heist. External Links * The Billygoat's Guide to Concealment References Category:Blog posts